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Monday, May 26 - Language class in the morning, and the first of
the culture lessons from Professor James Lee in the afternoon. Today's
lunch session was a meeting between our group of students and the 4
students from PKU who went to the US last summer; they gave our group
a brief tour of the campus. |
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Today's topic: Higher Education in China |
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Tuesday, May 27: At lunchtime today, the whole UM/PKU program got
together for first introductions. |
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The US students met their research mentors, and some of the students
went back in the afternoon to meet the research groups. |
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The 6 PKU students who are going to the US later this summer were
also introduced, and they gave our students a brief tour of the chemistry
buildings. |
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It is wonderful to see the program growing from a time when all of
us could sit around a relatively small table. |
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Internet connectivity has been slow to set up this year in the apartments
for various reasons related to 2008. So after the culture class (on
the nature of Chinese revolutions), we took a break and the students
caught up on their email, etc., on the computers at the Joint Institute.
Everyone did get connected back at the Wanliu apartments later this
evening. |
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The group headed out on its own to Kro's Nest, a popular pizza place
just off the NW corner of campus. |
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Excellent pizza. |
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After a busy couple of days (to say the least), it was a welcome
relief for the students to exhale for a moment and just relax and enjoy
an unstructured evening together. |
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It's safe to say that people who have only known each other for
a week, but who share common (and extreme) experiences, tend to form
a strong community pretty quickly.
It's even tempting to say "live together, die alone,"
but you might not get the popular reference.
So you can google it if you don't know it. |
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Saturday, May 31 - After a week of science, language and culture-in-the-classroom,
it is time to get out to the sites and do a bit of walking. |
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First stop: the Lama Temple |
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There is a strong Buddhist tradition in China. |
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It is, somehow, a little uncomfortable to be standing around a big
open temple and taking pictures of people during spiritual activities. |
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There are large incense burners outside each temple on these large
grounds. |
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Along with vendors, of course, who will sell you all sorts of burnables. |
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As you can see, this is (now) in the heart of the city. One imagines,
only 20-30 years ago, that it was a rural distance from these sites
to others.
Now you can get here easily because there is a Lama Temple stop
on the subway. |
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Next stop, particularly good for students, is the Confucious Temple,
which is nearby to the Lama Temple. |
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The large stones record the names of the top-scoring students on
national ranking examinations from years ago. |
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A sort of academic immortality. |
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With Guards. |
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A couple of close-ups of the (tiny) characters etched into the stone. |
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These are each less than half an inch high. |
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Marko rides. |
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Kelly, Justin and (in the background) Zhaleh. |
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One of many ornate ceilings in the Confucious halls. |
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Walking around the grounds. |
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One last stop on these grounds, a royal reception hall. |
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A desk for holding Confucious office-hours. |
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In the last few years, the old residential quadrangles have been
being torn down for urban renewal. They take their names from the alleys
between them: hutongs.
There has been a move to preserve some of these areas and hutong
tours, done by pedal-bike rickshaws, have become popular in the old
part of the city.
Zhaleh and Alisa during their open air tour. |
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A sight-seeing stop and a little vogue action by the kung fu master. |
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Allison & Justin react to our driver, who got it into his mind to
do a little racing with their driver. |
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Zach and Melody. |
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Getting a briefing about the hutongs. |
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It's possible that some of these pictures should be at a password
protected site.
Melody and Marko in the bridal chamber. |
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That would be me... probably authorizing the transfer of funds... |
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In the name of understanding culture: a local watering hole. |
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Next was a trip to the drum tower to see the nightly performance. |
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And the day wrapped up with dinner and a performance at the Lao She
tea house. |
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Sunday, June 1 - My favorite sections of the Great Wall are located
together, about 10 km apart: Jinshangling and Simatai. There are positioned
along the ridges of some dramatic mountains, and they are not the highly
reconditioned and rebuilt sites (like at Badaling). |
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Unless you have hours and hours, and the weather is early spring-like
(in my opinion), you should take the transportation up the mountains
in order to maximize your time at the top.
As I understand it, the shadow than one makes on the ground by hanging
yourself out of the car with your arms extended looks like a bug.
Good thing these are not students from OUR program.
ahem |
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Jinshanling is the most convenient of the two sites because the transports
take you just about all the way to the summit. |
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For those of you who came in late, the Great Wall was commissioned
(ordered) by the first Qin Emperor, the one who unifed China and whose
tomb includes the terra cotta warriors, about 2200 years ago. |
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A typical Jinshanling view. |
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UMPKU REU at Jinshanling.
OK, to be honest, this picture has been photoshopped. Any guesses? |
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More of Jinshangling. |
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You can see that we had really nice weather. |
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There are times of the year that are not so clear. |
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Xu grabs some pictures from one of the watch towers. |
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Note the mountain ridge... note the height... now imagine building
this thing. |
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One of the things that happens out here is that some of the local
farmers are stationed at the transport stop, and they accompany you
along the wall, just about 1 of them for every 2-3 of you. They are
actually quite useful when you hit some of the rougher areas, and they
are pretty interesting to talk with. Of course, they have bundles of
goodies with them that they are trying to sell. |
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Here, for instance... a nice time to have a guide. |
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You can see the more rough or crude nature of the path. |
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Lunch break for Spencer.
You know, you can try for a hundred years for a spontaneous picture
like this and never ever get a chance at it.
Somehow, I think I will not use this one on next year's brochure. |
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After lunch, we went to Simatai. There are two layers of transport
and even then there is more of a hike to get to the summit.
Something you miss is the gorge, where the wall is split by this
river and its reservior. |
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Justin and I went in this direction while the rest of the group went
to the high ground. |
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Again, the wonderfully un-renovated sections of the Wall make these
a terrific visit. |
